Sapelo Island/ˈsæpəloʊ/ is a state-protected island (barrier island) located in McIntosh County, Georgia. The island is reachable only by airplane [1] or boat, with the primary ferry coming from the Sapelo Island Visitors Center in McIntosh County, Georgia, a seven mile (11 km), twenty-minute trip.[2]

Sapelo Island map

Approximately 97 percent of the island is owned by the state of Georgia and is managed by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources; the remainder is under private ownership. The western perimeter of Sapelo is the Sapelo Island National Estuarine Research Reserve (SINERR)[3] which is part of NOAA's National Estuarine Research Reserve system (NERR).[4] The University of Georgia Marine Institute,[5] which is focused on research and education, is located on 1,500 acres (6.1 km2) on the south end of the island. The Reynolds Mansion, a Georgia State Park,[6] also lies on the south end of the island. Visitors to the island must be a part of an organized tour or guests of residents on the island. The island also has a small private airport run by the state of Georgia.[1]

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The community of Hog Hammock includes a general store, bar, and other small businesses. There are two active churches in the town, including First African Baptist Church at Raccoon Bluff. Most inhabitants of the town are African Americans, part of the Gullah-Geechee community, and have been living on the island for generations. The current population in the community is estimated to be 47 (2009). The residents must bring all supplies from the mainland or purchase them in the small store on the island. The children of Hog Hammock take the ferry to the mainland and take a bus to school, as its own school closed in 1978.[2]

In the 1990s, mainlanders began acquiring parcels of land from the Gullahs to construct vacation homes. In 2012, McIntosh County property tax appraisers notified Hog Hammock residents of huge property tax increases, even though there was no longer a school on the island. One Hog Hammock property owner's annual tax bill soared from $600 to $2,100. In 2013, a fight over the sudden tax hikes was well underway, with some residents claiming they would be driven from land they had owned for many generations for the benefit of mainlanders who would acquire more of Hog Hammock's homes.[7][8]

Sapelo Island is speculated to be the site of San Miguel de Gualdape, the short-lived (1526–27) first European settlement in the present day United States and if true, it would also be the first place in the present-day U.S. that a Catholicmass was celebrated.[9]

One of the slaves owned by Thomas Spalding was Bilali Muhammad, an Islamic scholar from West Africa who authored a 13-page document about Islamic law on the island - possibly the first manuscript of Islamic law ever written in the United States.

In 1820, a Winslow Lewis brick lighthouse was built on the island. Although it remained dark for over 90 years, it was rebuilt and relit in 1998.[10]

Spalding opposed the abolition of slavery and he died in 1851 returning from a convention to assert Georgia's position on the matter. When freed, the former slaves established several settlements on the island; the last remaining is Hog Hammock with approximately 70 remaining land owners.[2] During the Civil War, the Spalding home was heavily vandalized and lay in ruins.

By the early 20th Century the International Road Races were attracting notables from the motor world to Savannah, Georgia. One attendee was Howard E. Coffin, founder of the Hudson Motor Company. Coffin purchased the entire island, save for the land owned by the former slaves, for $150,000 in 1912.[2] Like Spalding, the Coffins embarked on numerous projects. Miles of shell-covered roads were laid, creeks were bridged, old fields were cultivated and large tracts were set aside for cattle grazing. The Coffins also renovated and enlarged the Spalding house, creating an island paradise unsurpassed on the coast. Former presidents Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover as well as aviator Charles Lindbergh were guests in the home.[2]

Tobacco heir R. J. Reynolds, Jr., of R. J. Reynolds Tobacco, bought Sapelo during the Great Depression in 1933, and continued the tradition of agricultural experimentation of the previous owners. Reynolds and his family used his private island paradise as a part-time residence for three decades, consolidating the island's African-American residents into Hog Hammock. Many worked as servants in South End House, later renamed the Reynolds Mansion by the State of Georgia.

Sapelo owner RJ Reynolds, Jr. founded the Sapelo Island Research Foundation in 1949. He later funded the research of Eugene Odum, whose 1958 paper The Ecology of a Salt Marsh won wide acclaim in scientific circles. Odum's paper showed the fragility of the cycle of nature in the wetlands, and his research done on Sapelo helped launch the modern ecology movement.

Reynolds' Sapelo Research Foundation also helped fund the University of Georgia's research on the island.[2] Reynolds' widow, Annemarie Reynolds, sold Sapelo to the state of Georgia for $1 million, a fraction of its worth, in two separate transactions in 1969 and 1976. The latter sale resulted in the creation of the Sapelo Island National Estuarine Research Reserve, a state-federal partnership between the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Thanks in part to the philanthropy of the Reynolds family, Sapelo is now open to the public by appointment.

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) offers tours several days a week. These can be booked through the Sapelo Island Visitors Center. Additionally, many island residents offer private tours which can often be customized to fit the interests of individual tourists. A state campground is also available to groups of 15-25 people on Cabretta Island (adjacent to Sapelo Island).

Cornelia Walker Bailey, Sapelo Island resident and descendant of Bilali Muhammed, wrote the book God, Dr. Buzzard and the Bolito Man: A Saltwater Geechee Talk About Life on Sapelo Island, Georgia (ISBN 0385493770) which is a first-person account of growing up on Sapelo; co-author Christena Bledsoe. RJ Reynolds' grandson Patrick Reynolds and author Tom Shachtman co-authored The Gilded Leaf: Triumph, Tragedy and Tobacco - Three Generations of the R.J. Reynolds Fortune and Family (ISBN 0595366589), which offers an unvarnished view of RJ Reynolds Jr during the time he owned Sapelo. Author Tom Poland wrote a novel entitled Forbidden Island ... An Island Called Sapelo (ISBN 1425992021). Singer Larry Jon Wilson has recorded a song entitled "Sapelo" which is about the island on the album Testifying - The Country Soul Revue. Author T. C. Boyle set his 1990 novel East is East on a fictional island in Georgia, much of which resembles Sapelo Island, such as the presence of Hog Hammock and proximity to Darien.

An episode of ESPN's Outside the Lines was filmed on Sapelo Island and the Hog Hammock community in 2013, documenting the childhood of Allen Bailey and telling the community's story and current property tax issues.